Lots of DoG, some of the time

So, I have finally recovered from the All DoG, All the time party that Paul Greff hosted at his Boston loft on Saturday night. I'm going to have to try and remember stuff that is lost in the mists of time/alcohol. But, in short, it was a very successful party. What is shocking is how LITTLE discussion there has been about the party on the DoG email list.

So, the story begins at roughly 11AM with some goaltimate at Harvard. It is the best weather for Goalty in the last two months, no wind, plenty of sun, maybe low to mid 30's, 6 on 6, and the game is good.

Actually, the story starts a week earlier as Jim starts to put together the DoG tome. It is a compilation of rsd articles, blog entries, DoG year by year notes from Jim's website, other excel spreadsheets (we beat DoG, a summary of teams that have beaten DoG and how many times), etc. After putting a few pages of pictures at the beginning, including team pictures from all the years of DoG that are available (most teams except a few 200x teams), it ends up at a slim 98 pages.

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave, Ron Jambalanza and Justin Safdie have arrived on the red-eye and begin drinking at an aggressive 1PM Saturday afternoon, a full 6 hours before the evening festivities. Later in the day, I'm about to get on the T at 6:15 (not a chance that I'm driving to this party) when I get a call on my cell phone. Brian Cameros calls me from Central Square (in that afternoon from Seattle) to inform me that he has no idea when the party is, where it is, and that he is a nomad and can he stay with me. SHo 'nuff I take the redline in with the agreement I'm going to get off at Central and call him to join me. I get to central, walk off the T and he is actually at my exact door, so we jump back on and take the train into South Station, and a short walk later, we're at the LOFT. Take the elevator to the 5th floor, and we're in. And we are WAY early.

Naturally I have brought some of my trusty cider (flame away) not trusting my teammates to bring beer with any taste. By the end of the evening, out of a total history 63 possible teammates, we had about 36 show up, including 4 way out of towners. The expected huge snowstorm I know scared off about 3 lamos, but nonetheless an impressive showing.

There were quite a few supporting cast memebers, including Sam's wife, Paul's honey, Jackie Bourgeois, Jeff's wife Esther, Lenny's wife Chris, Moonee's son Ben all in the first rush, and then the hangers on showed up well into the night including Sean (Shawn?) from Furious, Dom, Molly, and others who shall not be named (mostly because I don't know their names).

Highlights include shots of Red bull and . Doug's recitation of a season ending roast, J-co wrestling and throwing somebody into the stepladder, numerous shotguns in the corner (no I STILL haven't lost in can't count how many years), Dylan looking so sick he could barely stand up on his feet, actually seeing Lenny, bringing 5 tapes of old DoG games and leaving with 8 (Parinella finally returning my 94 and 95 semis/finals), Jordan Haskell making an appearance at a frisbee event and only looking fat, not obscenely fat like he has in recent history, taking about a 1000 pictures, all of which can be found here, Sam trying to pop up his ugly mug in every picture I took (you'll notice), drinking solidly from 7PM to 2PM when I left and grabbed a taxi with Jameros and Forch, getting little Ben drunk, realizing that Jim and I are the only people that these every DoG player at that party had in common as Nationals teammates, being impressed with Ron and Justin's staying party, laughing when they left mid-party to go to the Glass Slipper (yes, t*tty bar) to return later, did I mention not losing a gun, imagining Paul's cleanup job in the morning, wait he probably has a live-in maid, realizing we might be losing a tremendous number of players from last year, seeing John Bar anywhere, and other memories too numerous to enumerate (or remember, after all, I did drink a LOT), sledding with Brian and my kids on Monday (wait, that was after the party, well, it was still fun).

Well, at least we have a goal to shoot for for the next one. We need more than 4 out of towners, and more than 37 total. Might be tough now that the novelty is lost. I guess we'll have to wait a few years, maybe after a few more championships. Until the next time, and remember, pictures can be found here.

All DoG, all the time

Well, not quite. But back in December, Jim, Jeff Brown and I decided to have an impromptu DoG gathering at a suburban bar in Framingham (much to the amusement of the younger current members of the team). Old guys and new guys were invited, and we ended up getting about 6 or 7 people out during the course of the evening. I believe the other DoGgers that made it out were Paul Greff, Ted Munter, Bim Johnston, and I think another name in there somewhere.

Other than reviewing the Ultimate History Book, of which I had brought a few copies of (on my way back from the NYC signing event, which I discuss here). At the time, it was resolved that we should have an All DoG party for all current and past members of DoG. Paul graciously volunteered to host at his new bachelor loft in the financial district.

So, the time is nigh. The party will be happening this Saturday night. Out of town guests will include Justin SafDie and Ron Jambalanza from San Fran, Zaz from Chi-town, Brian Jameros from Seattle(!) and hopefully other surprise visitors. I'm not keeping the rsvp list, but it promises to be a scorcher. Just to share some emails from today

1) who can bring a cooler?
2) who can bring a case of beer?
3) who can make sure things don’t devolve into watching so much scratchy video of jeremy carrying water in ‘95 that the current roster moves to rename the team “boss snapple?”
4) who can explain why paul’s entry code is 11 and not 22?

So of course my immediate response to #4 was because perhaps Paul is half the man he used to be since he stopped playing among other such gems?

And from a young guy

"wait, al, i'm confused. does the mbta have a "no coolers" rule? why?
to discourage urban picnicking?

people aren't really planning on watching frisbee videos, are they?
seriously? ultimate frisbee? like, with dogs? can't you just make
copies and watch at home, late at night, sitting rapt in dark corners,
nursing cheap beers, faces alive with the television's glow, the
memories? i don't quite get it: greff's hosting a party, risking the
wrath of his condo association, just to watch some betamax tape of
people playing a game that is quite possibly the greatest mistake in
human athletic history? sounds like a bitchin' party! "woah, turn
the volume down on this one, fellas--the crowd gets pretty loud."
right. wouldn't want to disturb the neighbors.

i'm taking the t, so i'll bring a case of beer, a bottle of whiskey,
and my new boss snapple jersey. and if any of you breaks tom's
collarbone, i'm coming after you."

And, of course, Jim's genius response to this

"You'll have to trust me on this one, but it's really cool to watch
yourself win a national championship. It's not so cool to watch a
video and say, "eh, we can stop watching any time now."

Yes, the young guy was one of the ones without a title.

Naturally, after favorable weather predictions from early week, we are now slated to get a Noreaster during the exact times of the party. So, Paul better get ready to set up hotel Greff, or have a bouncer to clear us all out once the party is over, because there won't be a taxi to be found in all of downtown, and the T will be closed. Naturally there will be a blog entry next week to discuss the outcome. Let the games begin.

Another Ultimate history book signing event

So, after attending the New York event back in December and catching up with a bunch of the New York players (and buying a few copies for family members), clearly I had to attend the local version. After the large turnout in Manhattan, I was expecting the thriving ultimate community in Boston to have a great showing. Boy, was I mistaken.

The event ran from 8-10 at Doyles, a bar located in Jamaica Plain and not really convenient. The weather was pretty miserable (well, at least it was warm, but lots of rain). Regardless, even despite all of these shortcomings, I was very disappointed at the turnout. There couldn't have been more than 20-25 people there the entire night. I was the youngest (!) current DoG player in attendance (with Jim also attending). Paul Greff made an appearance with a couple of his kids in tow to pick up a few copies, and Jeff Brown also made an appearance. That was it for DoG both past and present. There wasn't a single Twisted Metal person that showed (that I know of). Hell, even Pike had a better showing, with Danny Clark and Ryan Todd in attendance. A pretty sad reflection for such a large ultimate community.

One of the highlights for me was having an extended conversation with Jon Cohn, a recent inductee to the Ultimate Hall of Fame. It was pretty cool to actually talk to somebody who had played at Columbia High School with a lot of the names that we have become familiar with, like Joel Silver, Johnny Hines, and Buzzy Hellring. On the UPA website, it refers to Jon having four disc-playing sons. Well, one of his sons won the world long distance throwing championships, throwing the disc a ridiculous 209 meters (which is just INSANE). Apparently the record is 250 meters, but that was with a 35-mile wind. It was funny talking to Jon and getting his perspective on the early years, with Jon going off to Cornell and starting a team there so that he could continue to have fun playing the game, but clearly NEVER anticipating that ultimate would ever hit the big time like it has, especially with the explosive growth at the high school level these days.

It is fun in my dotage to go to events like this and reminisce over times gone past. There was obviously a lot of discussion of DoG's early years, blah, blah, blah. Jim, Jeff, Danny, Ryan, Jon and I talked and stayed well past the event's closing time, leaving around 12:30-1AM. All in all, a fun night.

Oh yeah, and this time I actually was able to get a copy of the book signed by the authors for me this time. Fortunately Adam Zagoria made a surprise appearance after not being expected to show up.

And again, here is a big boo to the Boston ultimate community for such a lame turnout.